More messages in bottles from the “Lost” island, by way of the Comic-Con sea.

It seems “Lost” executive producer is teed off something fierce that ABC president of entertainment Stephen McPherson blew the not-so-huge surprise announcement he planned to make at Comic-Con.

Reportedly Lindelof was hoping to send the swarms into full-fledged geebledygeebledyglee with the news of Harold Perrineau’s return, but the crusty critics stole that thunder on Wednesday.

That’s right! When it comes to berating network heads into spilling the beans, the TCA’s kung fu is the best, and our ornery tiger style still beats the Comic-Con herd’s fluttering eagle style. But keep on practicing, grasshoppers! We will meet again next summer on the field of nerd battle.

It’s not as if critics left Lindelof high and dry, either. Check out the morsels he saved for the Warcraft addicts, Trekkers, wood elves and others who grok the language of saving throws and pluses against critic mesmerization, also know as the Comic-Con faithful.

From TV Week, and god bless ’em for braving that raging sea of humanity:

— Michael has the distinction of being the first and only character written out of the show with the knowledge that he’d come back.

–Production on season four starts in four weeks, and the first episode is set to air in February. It seems the producers expect to be in the midst of writing episode 14 as the season premiere airs.

–ABC will not be showing repeats of season three. (What do you think the DVDs are for?)

–Lindelof indicated Jack would soon find out Claire is his half-sister, by way of a nod.

–We will see Libby in season four, and find out she is connected to the Dharma Initiative. Season four also will reveal the true identity of Henry Gale, and show us how Ben Linus got caught in Rousseau’s trap.

–Flashbacks will slowly be phased out in favor of flash-forwards. The one woven through the final episode of season three did not represent the end of the show.

–Before they go away entirely, however, Rousseau will get a flashback in either season four or season five.

–Perhaps in response to the idea ( gently proposed by Chicago Tribune critic and close friend o’ the TV Gal blog Maureen Ryan) that the flash-forward may have borrowed from “Battlestar Galactica’s” season two finale, the producers explained that the writers have been playing around with the idea since the first season. But they could not pull the trigger on it until they had set an end point.